The crack of the bat, the smell of popcorn, the fans and the stars… baseball was back in Sugar Land last night as the Space Cowboys hosted the Astros in one of two tune-up games before Opening Day on Thursday.
PRE-GAME
While they wore different jerseys in the game, they are all in the same gear for batting practice. Chas McCormick, who if you didn’t know had a pretty important catch in the World Series, was out and about.
“Feels good, especially in my own town. That’s what we prep for every single year, to make catches like that. We emphasize defense every year,” Chas McCormick on his game saving catch. “At any time, any moment you can really make things happen. I remember I had a bad game at the plate but as you learn and grow in the big leagues you have to learn how to forget about it and play defense and that’s what happened,” McCormick said.
David Hensley also spoke with the media about being back home… “It’s awesome, its been a short but meaningful off-season,” Hensley said. He was also asked about filling in at second base in Altuve’s absence… “Take it like any other day. I take pride in playing multiple positions. I played a lot of games at second base coming up,” Hensley said.
THE GAME ACTION
J.P. France got the start for the Space Cowboys and pitched well in his first outing of the spring. The right-hander tossed two scoreless innings with 3 strikeouts, including one on Peña to start the game. His velocity was up to 95.5 MPH, which is a nice place to him to be.
Ronel Blanco started for the Astros and continued his hot pitching this spring. He tossed three scoreless innings against the Space Cowboys while allowing one hit, one walk and racking up two strikeouts.
Shawn Dubin was in next for the Space Cowboys and he allowed a run as David Hensley put the Astros on the board with an RBI single to right. Dubin would allow another run in the 6th. He went 3 innings allowing 2 runs and striking out 4.
Ryan Pressly pitched 2/3 of an inning and walked two for the Astros. He was pulled for Stanek who closed out the 4th. In the 6th inning, Yainer Diaz pinch hit for Martin Maldonado and connected on a solo HR to right field as his hot spring continues.
The Space Cowboys got on the board in the 6th with a Grae Kessinger walk, Will Wagner double and Joe Perez RBI groundout off of Bryan Abreu. The Astros pen pitched well though getting scoreless outings from Blake Taylor and Seth Martinez.
Bryan Garcia pitched the final four innings for the Space Cowboys allowing just 1 run but the Space Cowboys offense was unable to get anything else going as Austin Davis closed it out with 2 scoreless innings as the Astros won the exhibition game 3-1.
